The HBO series starred Bill Paxton as a modern-day polygamist Mormon patriarch and ran for five seasons. Mormon leaders often criticized the show for giving a very inside look at the sometimes-controversial religion.

Fast forward to todayMitt Romney's Mormonism has become a big talking point in the 2012 presidential election.

We'll never know just how Big Love may have affected public opinion about the religion or of Mr. Romney, but should any of this even matter in the voting booth?

"I would certainly not fault Mitt Romney," Paxton told us last night at the Hollywood Reporter's premiere of his new miniseries Hatfields & McCoys. "I would not not vote for him because of his religious orientation. That's ridiculous. Aren't we a little beyond that? Even our founding fathers, they created a very specific situation where there was a separation between church and state. I don't think religion has anything to do with politics and I don't think politics has anything to do with religion."

If only that was true.

"But I think [religion is] used as a weapon of propaganda to create a polarization," Paxton, 57, said. "We're all Americans. We're from everywhere. We believe in freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of whatever your orientation is."